Kev

I looked at their list and think they have 10 players who we should close down. Sicily, Impey, Burgoyne, O'mera, Mitchell, Isac Smith, Gunston, Breust, Puopolo and Roughhead.

Wouldn't know who to drop. Bernie Vince could be an in with his experience and possibly last games. He has a beautiful kick and we saw what experience can give with the example of Jordan. Another being Joel Smith who brings a little x-factor with his marking and flexibility to play back and forward, though the step up with final pressure may be too much to expect. Jay Kennedy-Harris for his pressure acts, run and ability to be in contest. We have some players who can cover if there are injuries.

Heading/walking off to the "G" now. Go Dees. Good luck with rational thread.

I think we will keep our mids in the centre (maybe tracca? but he is a fwd most of the time). The centre is where it will be won and we need and have cohesion. Play the roles at the right time. Later may use Clayton fwd. They may push their old ones down forward but our forward line is very good.

It will be a ripper to me as well. Don't miss it. How switched on are we? How hard are we going to be? Will we be leading or chasing? Hope we settle quickly and don't let them in. Viney with the first clearance. Selwood to be the first that vander's smashes then Ablett. Gawn hitting to our players with his 360° taps and his footy smarts.

Love it when we get the ball. Great when we are fighting for it. Just a little worried when the opposition has it. Sometimes our zones don't work, they get out the back or hit easy lead ups. We can move the ball very quickly, so scoring shouldn't be a problem, so long as we are accurate and get the easy goals. Missing the easy ones kill our momentum and confidence. It will be manic and hoping the opposition can't go with us given they have had a soft lead up to the finals and we have been beating good teams. Our recent style is proven, they are getting ahead of themselves. Control the momentum, score after they get one and be front runners. Crunch and hussle, then bring on the skills. Go Dees

Tom Mcdonald (goals), Bailey Fritsch (contested marks and ball efficiency) and Alex Neal-Bullen (1%, pressure turnovers and assists). As well as our guns, Clayton Oliver, Angus Brayshaw, Max Gawn and James Harmes

Too difficult to determine. I hope it is the same for our opposition and we keep them guessing, so they don't get there match ups right. Possible ins with Joel, Tim and Jayden but most likely Hannan. He was kicking beautiful goals today and Rooke talking to him suggest he is being considered. Who to drop if anyone? The worry was the absence of Vanders one day out.

The mornings session was sharp and sweet. Blink and you would miss it. Plenty of media there. They seemed to be in a joyous mood. There was lots of talk and regularly they gathered in small groups to have discussions. Probably related to structures. Rehab had Bernie Vince, Oskar Baker, Dean Kent and Lachlan Filopovic. Bernie, Oskar and Crossy doing some nice kicking to moving targets (Great for Oskars development). Kenty doing laps. They started off doing kicking practice, then split into their lines. The mids did hit ups to the forwards. Backs continued kicking. Goodwin spent time with the forwards. At one time structured them up without any ball play. Jack Viney did some one on one work getting his touch with below knee drills. Some work with drills to stop the opponent recieving the handball off the mark from running on. The forwards and mids finished with goal kicking. Sam Frost doing some work running up the wing and then kicking the ball to a coach. No Aaron vandenBerg, probably being managed. He had been in the test group the last two weeks. James Harmes at training. Mitch Hannan having long discussion with Max Rooke. Last to leave were Jake Melksham and Christian Petracca who were goal kicking. Go Dees, from Kev Martin

I didn't see the start of their run. When they went passed me Joel wasn't with them. Thought I saw him in simulations. Maybe he is the emrgency.

Beautiful September morning, thanks to the supporters, the crowd continued to grow as the session progressed, maybe 300 there. Plenty of MFC staff in attendance. The squad was very vocal. Rehab had Oskar Baker (looking closer to playing), Lachlan Filipovic, Corey Maynard and Bernie Vince. Bernie told a few he is a good chance to play next week (probably at Casey). Dean kent joined later and was running laps. Jack Viney training well. Dom Tyson wearing a long sleeved jumper but not much of a guard showing, he protected his arm a little bit but did a full session. Jordan Lewis trained well, near the end he did a few extra laps. Cam Pedersen was working with the forwards. Plenty of goal kicking for the forwards. The mids did some boundary drills and then joined the forwards for some hit up work, delivering the ball from outside 50 to leads. Backs mainly looking for links along the boundary and later creating a 3rd man peeling away to impact the one on one contest when the ball came in. The drills with the mixed group involved some soft one on one contests, ending in a linking player who had a kick at goal. All were involved. Plenty of kicking drills for everyone, getting them to kick to advantage with "stick" men acting as the opposition or kicking the ball after work on the wings to a leading forward. The simulations seemed to be a competitive without having hard contest. They were finding the player out the back of the pack, getting the extra defender to the one on one, taking some contested marks and creating overlaps. During the simulations, the Casey squad ran some laps (included was Mitch Hannan and Jayden Hunt). Joel Smith was in the simulations. There was some intense tackling drills between Charlie Spargo and Jay Kennedy Harris, then between Alex Neal-Bullen and Christian Petracca. Coach was giving them some detailed instructions for their techniques. None appeared to be carrying any niggles. The week off has helped. They are up and about. Plenty of joy in squad. Go Dees, From kev Martin

To Dv8 My first line "Great turn out by the fan"s", why say "and the supporters!!!!". The admin and demon army put time and planning to bring "more" to todays atmosphere and I thank them for that. Without the people then of course no atmosphere. A game is played because, someone made some rules, brought some equipement and cut the grass. Purely it is about some people having fun and kicking a ball around. Those who watch is incidental to those who play. You say you are the important one and they should make it better for you. I say, you give them money and allow them to do nothing but play. Do you use the same logic for all the entertainers. (Music, art, theatre, movies). I think we are the mugs. The performers are the ones having the best time and the corporates sell that to us. A few with the glory and then the masses. Without the sponsorship, not the fans the game is just what 50 people want to do with their time off. The colleseum was built to manipulate political powers and no matter how important you think you are you remain a pawn in the big picture. Elite sport, music, art, theatre and movies all take something away from us. If we don't turn up to the game then they would change tack and sell us something else and we are always buying. We crave a tribal connection, they know it and we love it. They know what we accept how far they can go with us. The masses will never dictate to them. I think you are grassping at straws and reading something into my words that was not there. I do understand your frustration, especially since daddy told you you are the most important. I would suggest you get out and have a kick of the football in an open field and know it is bloody good fun as your mates make lots of noise.

Great turn out by the fans. Our colours are everywhere, kids calling out the names of their heroes, flags are being waved and doggy's in the red and blue. Good job by the Army and admin to create suitable finals atmosphere for the MFC players and staff. No Mitch Hannan, Jordan Lewis, Joel Smith, Jeff Garlett, Tom Bugg or Jayden Hunt. Rehab had Dom Tyson (some skill work, mainly laps), Mitch King, Corey Maynard and Oskar Baker. Test group had Aaron vandenBerg and Jack Viney, both later joined the main group. Jack getting congrats from players and fans when he joined. At the end of training he continued running laps by himself. No surprises in the forwards, backs or mids grouping. Mids were tackling and pressuring each other reasonably hard. Forwards goal kicking pract ice as was the whole squad at some times. It was an extended session of simulations. They were hard at the contest. I thought we were a bit off with our skills, though a few stood out - James Harmes, Bailey Fritsch, Neville Jetta, Tom Mcdonald, Jay Kennedy-Harris, Aaron vandenBerg and it was good to see Jack Viney get his hands on it. At one stage the playing group pulled away from the coaching staff and had a pow wow together. Looked liked it was led by Nathan Jones. Good to see them taking self responsibility for some poor play. Plenty of running work was also done. Michael Hibberd wearing number 38 on his back. Hypothetical match committee: Working on ingraining habitual behaviors, such as lowering the eyes, finding the corridors, rolling off the mark, moving the ball quickly and spreading. Reinforcing working hard and reacting quickly when it is turned over. A bit concerned about our clangers and rushing the set kicking. Go Dees, from kev Martin

Saw a link about the Casey game. No mention of TV, only said you can hear a broadcast on K-Rock FM 95.5 geelong radio.

Oops, forgot Dom broke ulna had operation, so he is being managed. VandenBerg possibly being managed as well. I remember him light duties/tested at thursday training before last game.

Thanks Earl. As a guess, those missing may play for Casey. Vanders for more game fitness, Tyson because he has cohesion with them, Joel to see if he is ready. Kent, Hannan and Viney probably being managed. Gosch's is great when all the professional teams are out there. Storm or the Reds as well next to the Victory. Usually the MFC only one's with spectators. Though Honda of late has had a few down there to watch him. I will miss this if we move our training somewhere else. Creates a good atmosphere. Vince will retire at the end of our season. Probably thinks he could get a game in the GF or prelim, if there are injuries or is needed. So will continue with his program

They will be thinking they can put a rally of 3 to 4 goals together. We have to reply to every goal they get. They will also know we will keep scoring for four quarters. They will want to keep in striking range and at sometime during the game make a break of 20 points or more. Being a finals atmosphere we will be up to it. Starting with some nervousness as we settle then we start scoring. There will be less stoppages so our clearance work is less inportant though we will dominate this stat. They will attempt to hold the ball with chipping to short leads. We will be looking for our normal fast ball movements. They will use Hawkins up the field as a link and put Danger forward for 1 on 1 contest a few times. I think Frosty should cover Danger when this happens and get Tom to cover Hawkins. When Hawkins is forward. keep Frosty on him. If Ablett goes forward get Fritsch on him and make him accountable to his rebound. Give Oscar the job on Biclavs when he is forward. Jetts on Menzel. We need to rotate Harmes on who ever is dominating the possessions. Put Viney and Jones at the stoppages when we need to lock it down. Oliver and Brayshaw when we need a goal Cause Selwood to cough it up by some pressing him with others intercepting his handballs. Crumbers to have a big day, Spargs, Milk, Trac and JKH, with Weeds, Tom and Max softly bringing the ball front and centre unless they stick the mark. Important to keep Scott guessing about us. We have lots of flexibility and should use it. Most importantly is to lower our eyes, hit the easy target, get the basics right and play some creative take it on football.

Fritsch is a no nonsense player. Keeps his mind on the game. I think it was the umpires who let him down. If they want to stop retaliation problems it should have been a 50 and a bit of a warning from them. They did nothing. The protected "super stars" get away with it again. No wonder the thugs win in our game. Rhetoric from AFL to set standards for the juniors. It is a joke. I hope we continue to play hard, fair and not turn to the nastiness of those prepared to assault others in order to intimidate. Punches and bullying is not acceptable in the real world. we don't have to encourage it in sport. Keeping the skilled out of the game because of those prepared to use violence. The young will copy what they see on the field of AFL. Standards should be high. I understand violence can influence games and brings alot of emotion to the spectators BUT it is a bad role model for a society struggling with assault.

Hibbs for me. Brings maturity to a young list. Reads the play beautifully. The backline can set up around his instincts, attack, defend, lock down or get ball. Reliable, good decision maker, makes others better players, rarely makes mistakes and can bring some "x" factor Stays calm, remains humble, leads by example.

From what I've seen he his a strong and tough player. Height means nothing, it is your heart. Flesh and bone is the same for everyone. Maybe weight has some say but he is a solid build. I have seen him take them on and not take a back step. Probably underestimated through the juniors as well. The smaller mans ego. Agility, speed and getting his shoulder into their ribs (perfect height for this). He can hurt them. Go Spargs. If they target him, I believe it will urge him on.

I've been noticing it more in general play than with the set shot. Also heard Macca encouraging them at training to do the same. Basically it's the same problem, the umps don't seem to be enforcing the creeping.

The MFC'S welcome strategy for internationals is great. All those students are wearing our colours. Saw a group of about 20-30 in the top level of the southern stand. Having a great time plenty of selfies and I assume social networking. We will have many supporters world-wide. It will suit us well when the AFL becomes the WFL (world football league). Well done our admin.

We have learnt how to win. Have matured from last year with our ability to build our game towards the end of the season. Have a good balance in our squad, all players are contributing and it appears all are playing their roles. Loved the way we closed them down and our ability to stand up in tackles and/or get the hands free. Our angles of attack confused them. Our defensive structures work well except for our ability to defend the small kicks. We seemed to give them that area inside the circle we make around 40 meters when they had a mark or free. Though the coaches adjusted this. They had problems breaking through our lines. Jordan is leading by example. Weeds brings good flexibility to the squad. They need to get used to JKH's style (lack of cohension). We can still work on our handballs (missed a few). Could see GWS lose momentum when they missed the easy goals. That used to be us. Now we just get on with it for the four quarters. Harmes, Brayshaw, Gawn, Oliver, beautiful mid fielders. Joy all round. Go Dees!

I think they are all being instructed to creep the mark. Seems the umps arn't enforcing it too often. Shaving cream will just slow the game down and make for congestion.

It is a day for our younger players. They can play a more natural game without the implied anxieties from having high consequences if we lose. Weids to get more than 5 marks and show his straight kicking style. Fritsch and Spargo to find lots of the football by getting off their opponents. I also think vanders and Kenty will set themselves up well for finals with hard tackles and contested football. Would love to see us get some good rebound goals from off the half back. Frosty to have his best game, Hibbs to read everything. Hopefully Goodwin produces structures that controls the momentum, causes them to turn it over and keeps the GWS to less then 10 goals. Would hate to see a shoot out. We need intensity and high pressure football that we can take into the final series. Hoping for no injuries and Petracca to kick goals from his set shots.